Republican politician claims it is not in Washington’s ‘vital interest’ to focus on conflict and should worry about China instead.
According to Ron DeSantis, protecting Ukraine is not a “vital interest” for the US, and the conflict is a “territorial dispute” between Kyiv and Moscow.
The Florida governor echoed Donald Trump’s position, saying that Ukraine should not be a foreign policy priority for the United States, which should instead focus on the threat posed by China and securing its own southern border.
“While the United States has many vital national interests, becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them,” DeSantis said.
He stated that “securing our borders, addressing the crisis of readiness within our military, achieving energy security and independence, and checking the Chinese Communist Party’s economic, cultural, and military power” are all vital US national interests.
His position means that the two most likely candidates for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 have a schism with senior Republican figures in Congress, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
A schism is forming within the party that has traditionally advocated for strong US engagement on the global stage. A growing isolationist contingent is challenging the establishment, Republicans.
Mr. DeSantis was responding in writing to a Fox News questionnaire that asked major Republican presidential candidates about their views on the Ukraine war.
Tucker Carlson, a Fox News anchor, tweeted the responses.
One of the questions was whether opposing Russia in Ukraine was a critical national strategic interest for the United States.
“The Biden administration’s virtual ‘blank check’ [sic.] funding of this conflict for ‘as long as it takes,’ without any defined objectives or accountability, distracts from our country’s most pressing challenges,” Mr. DeSantis said.
He stated that sending F-16 fighter jets and long-range missiles, as requested by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, should be “off the table.”
Mr. DeSantis said sending them would risk “drawing the United States into the conflict and drawing us closer to a hot war between the world’s two largest nuclear powers”.
He said the US “cannot prioritize intervention in an escalating foreign war over the defense of our own homeland”.
Mr. Trump, responding to the same question on whether US backing for Kyiv was vital for Washington, said: “No, but it is for Europe. However, not for the United States.”
When asked if the US should back regime change in Russia, Mr. Trump said, “No. In the United States, we should support regime change. That is far more crucial. The Biden administration is to blame for our current predicament.”
Establishment Republicans have agreed with Joe Biden that defending Ukraine is critical not only for European security but also for US interests.
“Reports about the death of Republican support for strong American leadership in the world have been greatly exaggerated,” McConnell said last month at the Munich Security Conference.
“We are committed to assisting Ukraine, not because of nebulous moral arguments or abstractions such as the so-called ‘rules-based international order,’ but because America’s core national interests are at stake.”
Democrats charged both DeSantis and Trump with undermining America’s allies.
“This is just the latest example of how the race for the Maga base means 2024 Republicans will take exceedingly extreme positions, even if it undermines our allies and democracy,” said Ammar Moussa, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee.
Mr. DeSantis’ stance contrasts with his stance on Ukraine when he was a member of Congress.
He backed military aid to Ukraine after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.
He also supported a resolution urging former President Barack Obama to provide weapons to assist Ukraine in “defending their sovereign territory from the unprovoked and continuing aggression of the Russian Federation.”
